Your cells recycle their own broken parts, and one scientist mapped exactly how

Yoshinori Ohsumi spent years watching ordinary yeast cells under a microscope and identified the genes driving autophagy — the process by which a cell encloses and digests its own damaged components. The discovery, honoured with the 2016 Nobel Prize, reshaped our understanding of aging and disease.

— Nobel Prize Committee, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016 — Karolinska Institute, 2016